Rogers back in Hamilton with purchase of Shaw

ROGERS

Many Hamilton consumers will need to get up to speed on a new carrier’s package of telecommunication services and possibly consider changing home or business email addresses for the third time in just over three years as Rogers makes a $400-million purchase of Shaw Communication’s Mountain Cablevision.

It’s part of a $700-million deal with Shaw as it also buys Shaw’s AWS spectrum holdings in 2014. In turn, Calgary-based Shaw will own one-third interest in Rogers’ TVtropolis. The offer is still subject to regulatory approval, expected in the first half of this year.

“We really liked the Hamilton cable asset, but when you look at our overall business, our focus is clearly in Western Canada,” said Chethan Lakshman, a Shaw spokesperson.

At the time, there were about 27,000 Internet and 41,000 cable TV customers in a region stretching across Hamilton Mountain, Binbrook, Mount Hope, Caledonia, Hagersville, Jarvis, Cayuga and Dunnville.

Lynn Page, executive director of the Concession Street BIA, said such changes in service can be hard on businesses which use email or website addresses based on a carrier.

“A lot of businesses have switched to use their own business name on their website as an address for exactly this reason,” she said. “It does cost a bit of money but it’s really hard on a business to have to change.”

Roger Burroughs, owner of Camtech Photographic Services on Concession, said he uses two email addresses — one with Bell and one on a Gmail account — partly because his Bell account can’t handle large files. But he’s loath to switch.

A Rogers spokesperson said no job losses are expected. Mountain Cablevision has a staff of about 130.

“This is a well-run company whose employees pride themselves on providing the best possible customer service and they’ll continue that focus,” said Patricia Trott.

She said Rogers owned a piece of the Hamilton cable TV market in the 1990s.

“It will expand our cable business in and around the Hamilton area and it’s a great fit with our existing cable business.”

Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed said Rogers anticipates offering so-called bundled services to customers in the Hamilton area — offering discounts for using a collection of services such as wireless, cable TV and Internet.

Rogers’ wireless division represents about 65 per cent of its business, cable about 25 per cent and media 10 per cent, Mohamed said.

The Toronto-based company has assets that include cable, Internet and broadcast TV assets such as Citytv and Sportsnet. Rogers also owns the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team and their stadium, the Rogers Centre, as well as a major stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL team, basketball’s Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC soccer. It also owns a slate of print magazines including Maclean’s and Chatelaine.